LAPD officer who accidentally killed 14-year-old girl defends actions on witness stand

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The Los Angeles police officer who accidentally killed a 14-year-girl in a department store during a 2021 shootout faced intense questioning Tuesday by attorneys for the girl’s family.

Valentina Peralta was hiding in a Burlington Coat Factory fitting room with her mother while LAPD responded to calls of a belligerent and mentally disturbed man assaulting customers with a bike lock. Officer William Jones pushed his way to the front of a tight police formation that was methodically moving up the aisle, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle.

When he saw the suspect, 24-year-old Daniel Abisai Elena Lopez, Jones didn’t hesitate before firing three shots in less than a second. One of the bullets hit Lopez in the back, killing him. Another ricocheted off the ground and through the thin fitting room wall, striking Peralta, who died in her mother’s arms.

Peralta’s parents sued the city of LA claiming negligence.

Jones returned to the stand Tuesday where he faced stiff interrogation from the parents’ attorney Haytham Faraj.

“I thought he had a firearm at that time,” Jones told the attorney, referring to Lopez. Seconds earlier, the officers had encountered a woman lying on the floor, her face covered in blood. “I thought she had been shot in the head.”

When Jones looked up, he said, “His elbow’s coming up and he’s moving… I thought he was going to try to shoot her again or shoot me.”

Faraj then confronted Jones about the far less certain statement he gave to investigators who look into matters of police use of force. Hours after the shooting, Jones told those investigators: “I see he’s got a black object down by his side. I couldn’t really tell what it was. I just, I thought it was a possible firearm.” Faraj asked Jones if his memory at the time was far more accurate than now, five years after the incident.

“I disagree,” Jones said, betraying a hint of agitation. “After a tragic incident like that, your brain and your mind are doing things you wouldn’t believe. It’s like someone dropping a bomb on you. That flight or flight — you don’t understand that situation, until you’ve been in my shoes.”

“Imagine being in Valentina Peralta’s mother’s shoes,” Faraj retorted. The comment drew a stiff rebuke from Superior Court Judge Frank Tavelman, and the remark was stricken from the record.

Jones also insisted he had “assessed” the situation after firing the first two shots — that is, that each of the three shots were fired deliberately, within a span of roughly 0.6 seconds.

“You fired all those rounds because you believed he had a firearm,” Faraj said.

“Yes,” Jones said.

“And you were wrong,” the lawyer said.

“Yes,” Jones responded, with his usual calmness. “I now know I was wrong for identifying that as a firearm.”

At least one of the radio calls from the LAPD dispatcher said, incorrectly, that a shooting had occurred in the North Hollywood department story. But most of the calls had warned of a suspect swinging a bike lock and smashing one of the windows with it. The Peraltas’ attorneys have tried to get both Jones and the senior officer during the shootout, Michael Mazur, to admit they knew the suspect likely did not have had a gun. Mazur, who concluded his testimony Tuesday morning, was especially resistant to this narrative.

“You believe there is a man terrorizing people, assaulting them with a bike lock,” attorney Nick Rowley told Mazur.

“I’m prepared for something,” Mazur said.

But after Rowley showed Mazur an excerpt from his deposition, Mazur acknowledged a “live shooter situation” was less likely than not.

Before Jones arrived on the scene, Mazur had organized three other LAPD officers into a “stick formation” or “diamond formation,” with a policeman holding a shotgun at the head. He directed another officer to shoot the suspect with a special firearm that fires less-than-lethal ammunition, like beanbags, and directed another to handcuff the suspect. Jones arrived a few minutes later with his partner. He pushed his way to the front of the formation, overtaking the officer with the shotgun. On body camera footage, Mazur can be heard screaming to Jones, “Slow down! Slow it down!”

The Peraltas’ attorneys have suggested that Jones was overeager to use his assault weapon, which he had just been trained to use. Jones has denied this. Mazur, too, defended Jones’ decision to take over the “point” position in the formation, and even his apparent refusal of the instruction to slow down.

“There’s maybe something I’m not seeing,” Mazur told the jury. “I’m probably back like eight feet. He’s point, starting to drive the stick, drive the team. He’s the point officer. He’s gonna have the most situational awareness up front. If they see something, they’re going to make their own assessments, how they’re gonna move.”

Jones returns to the stand Wednesday morning. Closing statements in the civil trial, which started two weeks ago, are expected sometime next week. Should the jury find the shooting negligent and the city of LA liable, the trial will move to a second phase to determine damages, and her parents are expected to testify at that time.

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